W.I.P. pics of new projects....

[Captain Canada]

Wow...that is some excellent work !

[matrixone]

Thank you Captain Canada!

The decals have been put on the Ki-61 and will start painting the rest of the camouflage paint on it soon.



Earlier today more painting was done the BF 109K-4, Bf 110G-4, and Dinah III...no pictures of them yet. Soon.


Matrixone

[Allan]

don't the red stars on the cannon ports look magnificent!?
and deft work with your spraying of the yellow leading edges, ol Matrixone, that must have required some deft masking, I'd wager

[matrixone]

Thanks Allan!

Actually the yellow on the leading edges of the wings on the Ki-61 was pretty easy because they were all straight lines, however the blue band around the fuselage was a little tricky since the lower part of the band is partly on the radiator and the lower fuselage...there was a very thin line of blue on the aft end of the radiator that needed to be on it.

What I did today on the Ki-46 Dinah III was even more difficult...masking off all the glass on the clear parts. The curved areas were a pain to do.

A lot of work was done today with the airbrush, the canopy framework of the Dinah was sprayed with the interior color and RLM 75 was sprayed on the Bf 109K-4 and Bf 110G-4 wings...both of those not only had the RLM 75 sprayed on but also the darkened panel lines and some white highlights. Next for those two Luftwaffe aircraft will be an ultra thin coat of more RLM 75 sprayed on to blend things together.

I hope to have new pictures of these builds in a day or so...I have been rained out a LOT lately.


Matrixone

[matrixone]

The Ki-61 had its field applied camouflage paint sprayed on earlier today. Before any paint was put on the model I used some damp salt to mask off little bits of the NMF on the wing roots and near the cockpit to represent paint chipping. On those Japanese aircraft that had field applied paint sprayed on them it seems the paint would wear off pretty easy near the wing roots and I wanted to have that feature on my model.



Towards the end of this build I will be using a silver artists pencil to better define some of the chipped off paint.

Matrixone

[su27rules]

 

[DogfighterZen]

Looking great as always! 

[matrixone]

Thanks su27rules and DogfighterZen!

I was not really that happy with the paint wear/chipping effect of the green paint and decided to use some fine grade sand paper and water to gently sand some of the green paint off and it was a success, now the model looks like more like the full size aircraft with worn paint instead of just silver paint slapped on to represent chipping.


The Bf 110G-4 and Bf 109K-4 both had their coat of RLM 75 sprayed on the wings, the Bf 110G needed to have some paint fading done to it, the aircraft I am modeling had a very worn looking appearance with the paint in bad shape.



The Dinah III had its undersurface color of light gray sprayed on followed by the panel lines sprayed with some medium gray paint. Tomorrow a thin coat of white gray will be misted on to complete the painting of the undersurface.



Matrixone

[Allan]

I really must remember that "gently sand off the green with wet sandpaper trick", but must remember to make sure that the silver goes on first
Allan in Canberra

[matrixone]

Thanks Allan!

Before sanding off a layer of paint be sure to use some clear to provide a barrier to prevent sand through the metal finish...that's what I did with the Ki-61.

Matrixone

[matrixone]

Did a bunch of painting the last modeling session.

The camouflage pattern on the Bf 110G-4 was finished, also paint fading was done on the paint...this aircraft will have a weathered finish on it.


The Dinah III had its pre-shading and highlights toned down and now painting of the upper surfaces can commence.
It might look like the pre-shading is overdone but after the markings and clear flat coat are on the model the pre-shading will hardly be noticed.


And the Bf 109K-4 is mostly painted, the fin/rudder has yet to be painted, the fin/rudder will have the late war stencil style camouflage pattern on it and that will be painted on the model by both the airbrush and a paint brush.



Matrixone

[matrixone]

More in-progress pictures...

The pre-shading on the Ki-46 is done, it will be covered by a thin coat of the base color to tone it down.


Camouflage painting on the Bf 109K-4 was wrapped up after painting of the stencil style of camouflage pattern on the tail was done.



Matrixone

[NARSES2]

109 tail is interesting. Do I understand that in real life a stencil was used rather than being sprayed freestyle ? If so then even a brush painter like me could do it, hopefully 

[DogfighterZen]

Watching and learning... As always, excellent stuff!

[matrixone]

Thanks NARSES2 and DogfighterZen!

NARSES2,
For reasons unknown the RLM decided the fin and rudders for the later G and the K-4's to be painted with a stencil to define the camouflage pattern, yes this does make a little sense because by that stage of the war a lot of subcontractors were building aircraft parts and stencils would ensure the camouflage pattern to be correct but something that does not make much sense is a lot of times the tails did not match the color or camouflage pattern of the fuselage they were mounted to which made some touch up work needed with a spray gun and RLM 76 paint to blend in the tail. There are a number of photographs of late G-6, G-14, G-10's, and even some K-4's with the stencil applied camouflage on the fin and rudders toned down by an overspray of RLM 76. If they were going to need to be re-sprayed why continue painting these parts with the stencil?
Also another interesting thing about the subcontractors painting of the fin and rudders is the subcontractors seemed to be supplied with the late war defensive paint colors before the aircraft plants did which resulted in mismatched camouflage colors on the finished aircraft.

My K-4 model is a good example of the colors on the tail not matching those of the fuselage so you can see the need to lighten the contrast between the colors to help with the camouflage effect. The aircraft I am modeling was not one of those that had the fin and rudder re-sprayed. As the war kept getting worse for the Luftwaffe the practice of toning down the darker paint on the fin and rudders of the 109's seemed to go away. This is just as well since most aircraft produced during those times had an operational life of just a few hours before being destroyed.

Matrixone